REGIONAL FINALS: Westminster 2, B-CC 0

By Calvin Cobb


The 2009 B-CC field hockey season ended on a cold November 5th evening, at Westminster. The Barons failed to overcome the 90-minute drive up Georgia Avenue, an unfamiliar field, unhelpful referees, and a brilliant second-half goal by the 17-0 Westminster Owls, who prevailed, 2-0.

The Owls are a very good field hockey team – uniformly fast, aggressive, and talented. They swarmed the ball and exuded athleticism. But that does not mean the Barons could not win this game.

The Barons did many things well – blue shirts worked hard to get open on free hits, moved without the ball to support their teammates, overloaded the circle on defense, sprinted forward on offense, challenged the ball all over the field and backed each other up. They were ready to play and there was no shortage of effort.

But the Barons took some time to adjust to the unusually severe crown in the field, the slick and bumpy surface, the sections of dirt. It fell to the seniors to carry the early load -- Lauren Serpan was terrific in goal; Ruth Andrews was tough, tough, tough from the get go, and played perhaps her best game of the year. Meredith Storm and Sunny Cobb were all over the field – and they had to be. Charlotte Kettler, Paige Donnelly, Kelsey Kiser, and Rachel Ruda hustled all the way back on defense and then hustled all the way forward on offense, supporting the defense and working hard on offense.

In the first half, the offense generally coughed and sputtered – managing only one penalty corner, at times because the referees missed foot violations in the Owls half of the field. The Barons had many fewer free hits than their opponents, and as a consequence were unable to load up in the offensive end of the field and generate some sustained offense, shots and/or penalty corners. As the game wore on, the Barons got into the flow, and having fought through some close calls in front of their own net and a number of Owl penalty corners, and the game was evening out. There was reason for optimism when the score at halftime was 0-0.

The second half began with the Barons carrying the play more evenly – but remaining unable to generate any sustained offensive pressure. Cobb and Andrews were reduced to trying to spring Donnelly, Jenn Dewey and Kiser by blasting the ball down the field. Danielle Harkaway and Julie Michon offered additional offensive support. But our forwards were unable to meaningfully penetrate the Owls defense and Owl defenders were repeatedly able to gather the ball and carry it out of harm’s way by beating several Barons with their stickhandling and speed.

The Barons faced a number of penalty corners, but seemed to handle them with relative ease, until a scramble developed in front, the ball bounced off Serpan’s pads to a spot just outside the goal post, and the nearest Owl backhanded a slice shot from an acute angle up and over Serpan’s shoulder just inside the short side goalpost – a truly terrific shot – to make the score 1-0 with 19 minutes to play.

The Barons surged offensively but really could not get a break – very uncharacteristically they did not get more than a handful of free hits in the offensive zone in the entire second half. When the Owls scored on a blazing shot from the corner (the Barons defenders let up on a ball that had gone out of bounds over the end line but remained in play for lack of a whistle) to make it 2-0, it was all over but the crying. The Barons bravely fought on until the final whistle, but the Owls will move on and will likely make it to the State finals to face Severna Park.

It was a long season full of interesting lessons – the heartbreaking loss to Broadneck, followed by the exciting victory over St. Stephens St. Agnes, followed by the loss to Severna Park, followed by 11 straight wins, then the loss to Westminster. This team won the games it was supposed to win, several in overtime, and lost only to elite teams.

Under the close supervision of Coach Amy Wood, the girls worked hard, got better every day, and learned that they could trust each other because inside each one of them is a strong competitor. There is no shame here – to the contrary, there is much to be proud of. The kids laid it on the line and left it on the field. 2009 was a great team. 2009 was a great season. Congratulations to Coach Wood. Congratulations to each girl. I can hardly wait until 2010.